After month of uncertainty, Purdue football season ends in disappointment

ORLANDO, Fla. — Brian Brohm went to the podium moments after an embarrassing loss that caps a six-year run of Purdue football that falls under his older brother's watch.

In that moment, he shed some light on the inner workings of college football.

This instance particularly pertains to Purdue but it happens every December at programs across the country.

The Boilermakers had just lost the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl 63-7 to LSU, playing a game with an interim head coach, a depleted coaching staff and without five of their best players, who see NFL in their future and would rather not risk jeopardizing it by playing one more time for their school.

"The whole month we had a lot of different things happening," Brohm said. "Obviously started with Jeff taking the Louisville job. Multiple assistant coaches also departed at that time. Then you start talking to our senior players that were really most of our production throughout the season, guys with NFL futures that wanted to protect themselves and didn’t feel like it was in their best interest to play. You lose a lot of firepower there off the top."

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There was no Aidan O'Connell. No Charlie Jones. No Payne Durham. Or Cory Trice. Or Jalen Graham.

And, yeah, Purdue trotted out a unit that couldn't keep pace with the high and mighty LSU Tigers on Monday afternoon inside Camping World Stadium. With its stars, maybe Purdue still loses. But without them, there was never a chance.

But those players opting out was something those still within the Purdue program were certain of, at least for the past few weeks. At times, that was the one thing they did know about their team.

Within the month between playing Michigan for the Big Ten championship and Monday's Citrus Bowl, there was a lot of uncertainty.

Purdue played Michigan for the Big Ten title on Dec. 3.

Then this chain of events:

Dec. 4, Purdue accepts a Cheez-It Citrus Bowl invitation to play LSU.

Dec. 5, Scott Satterfield accepts the head coaching job at Cincinnati, opening up Louisville. A morning news conference inside Mackey Arena with Jeff Brohm and Purdue athletic director Mike Bobinski begins at 10 a.m., not long after Satterfield's change in job status is known. There's an air of uncertainty in the room with Brohm's name seemingly connected to becoming Louisville's next coach since the day he arrived at Purdue. At this news conference, he says there's been no contact with Louisville.

Dec. 7, it's reported Brohm has accepted the job at Louisville. He meets with the team to inform them he will no longer be their coach. His brother Brian Brohm will stay on at Purdue as interim head coach. Several assistant coaches go to Louisville with Brohm to get a head start on next season.

Dec. 8, Jeff Brohm is introduced at Louisville. Eight players verbally committed to Purdue end up re-opening their recruitment.

Dec. 13, Ryan Walters accepts the head coaching job at Purdue.

"Your guys are in flux, right," Brian Brohm said Monday evening. "Who is going to be your new coach? Does the new coach want me? Do I get in the transfer portal? Do your coaches have the same position? Do I have a job once the bowl game ends?"

There was a mental strain many endured over the past month in a program of uncertainty, which had several players who were suiting up for Purdue on Monday in Florida already announcing they've entered the transfer portal.

The end result of what should've been a special season, one that saw the Boilermakers advance to the Big Ten championship for the first time and one that concluded with a Jan. 2 bowl game against one of college football's most recognizable brands, was lackluster.

Points piled up, and so did injuries to Purdue's players.

The statistics were overwhelmingly in LSU's favor so much so that even when the Boilermakers tried to insert Devin Mockobee back into a lopsided game to try to get him a milestone 1,000 yards rushing, Purdue couldn't get it done.

"I think we’ve done a great job this year, we obviously made history at Purdue," said redshirt junior receiver TJ Sheffield, who scored Purdue's lone touchdown on a 16-yard pass from Michael Alaimo. "We just didn’t put it together today, but I am ready to get back to it next season."

Next season, where there is again certainty.

A new coach in Walters with new coordinators and assistant coaches. A new semester of classes beginning Monday with spring football in the not too distant future.

Soon, normalcy will be restored.

For now, there's disappointment.

Disappointment in an embarrassing loss, in the coaches who were partly the reason the current players came to Purdue now gone, and in the end of a year where perhaps Purdue's players united more than ever.

"Regardless of what anyone does, if they enter the portal or anything like that, it’s a brotherhood down there and I love every single one of the guys in that room so I know they will fight for me the same way I will fight for them," junior safety Sanoussi Kane said.

Sam King covers sports for the Journal & Courier. Email him at sking@jconline.com and follow him on Twitter and Instagram @samueltking.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: After month of uncertainty, Purdue season ends in disappointment